SACRAMENTO — After a drill portraying a deadly bird flu pandemic, federal agencies quietly decided states must take the lead and will hold preparedness summits across the nation — but California officials said Wednesday they want much more.

Assemblywoman Wilma Chan, D-Oakland, a longtime

health care advocate, is leading the Legislatures charge for Congress to approve funds — or at least stave off cuts in health appropriations.

The funding issue, however, is snarled in politics as time for congressional action runs out before lawmakers adjourn for the year.

After the drill at the White House, President Bushs top homeland security adviser, Fran Townsend, said the federal government has got a support role to play in preparing for a potential U.S. outbreak.

There is not going to be a federal answer to the problem, he added.

About 20 Cabinet secretaries and government officials spent four hours testing the govern-ments readiness for any flu outbreak.

They decided to hold meetings with governments in all 50 states to discuss preparations and coordinate response plans, Leavitt said. No date has been set for the California summit.

The avian influenza virus has spread from birds to kill scores of people in Asia. Scientists say the virus has the potential to mutate and become contagious among humans. Concern heightened after it spread among birds in Asia to eastern Europe.

No cases have been found so far in birds or people in the United States. But officials predict that a global outbreak, or pandemic, might kill as many as 1.9 million Americans because humans have no immunity to it and half of those infected die.

It also could cost the U.S. economy $675 billion, according to government estimates.

Bush and others have requested billions in emergency flu-preparedness funds that would help pay for increased production of vaccines and medications.

But prospects for appropriation of the funds is unclear at a time when Congress also is contemplating cuts that would harm preparedness.

Chan, who chairs the Assembly Health Committee, has called on the Republican-controlled Congress to reverse cuts to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in light of the potential for an avian flu pandemic.

We need a strong national commitment, she said.

But health experts agree that planning from Washington, D.C., is weak on too many fronts — weak on anticipating hospital capacity, weak on containing the flu overseas, weak on developing a vaccine and weak on stockpiling anti-viral medication.

The avian flu threat is pressing.

In its current form, it can only be transmitted to humans through contact with infected birds, Chan said. But scientists believe that it is only a matter of time before it mutates into a strain that can spread between humans.

Once that occurs, the virus could appear in California within a matter of weeks.

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